Blog: November 2010

Apple iMac Desktop – Introducing the new iMac available with 21.5- and 27-inch displays, it's the ultimate all-in-one computer with faster processors and graphics.  Click, swipe, scroll, and perform other gestures to control your iMac using Magic Mouse or the new Magic trackpad.  All iMac models now include processors from the blazing-fast Intel Core series, featuring an advanced processor architecture that helps set new performance benchmarks for iMac.

MacBook Pro - The new MacBook Pro features a breakthrough, long-lasting Battery that delivers up to 10 hours of wireless Productivity on a single charge and can be recharged up to 1000 times - nearly three times the lifespan of typical Notebook batteries. The new LED-backlit display has greater Color gamut than that of previous generations, giving you richer, more vibrant colors.

MacBook Air - Inspired by iPad, the new MacBook Air features all-flash storage, full Multi-Touch support, a long-lasting battery, and a high-resolution display.  Inspired by iPad, the new MacBook Air features all-flash storage, full Multi-Touch support, a long-lasting battery, and a high-resolution display.  A brilliant, high-resolution display houses an even thinner built-in camera, perfect for making FaceTime calls.

Apple TV - Apple TV has been redesigned to be small in size but big on entertainment. Rent from the largest selection of HD movies — many available the same day they come out on DVD. Watch Netflix titles instantly. Rent TV shows, commercial free in HD. And stream photos and music from your computer to your widescreen TV.

iPod Nano – The iPod Nano is now all music and all Multi-Touch.   It’s smaller, lighter, colorful, and sleek.  You can clip it on, take it anywhere, and always keep your music within reach.  The iPod Nano has been completely redesigned with the same technology that makes the iPhone, iPad, and iPod so amazing.  If you or your kids are into music the redesigned iPod Nano is a necessity this Christmas. 

iPod Touch - The new iPod touch has the same G4 processor, the same Retina Display, and the same front-facing cameras, but is now enough megapixels to capture HD video and low resolution photos.  With the new features and computing power, the 2010 iPod touch offers incredible value. Kids can download educational applications, games, and talk with friends face-to-face. 

 2010 was a monumental year for our organization.  If I had to describe 2010, I would say generally “Ideas became reality” and 2011 can only get better.  As you will see below, there is an opportunity for everyone to make some extra holiday cash with Inuvo!

BargainMatch – BargainMatch.com is our Inuvo-owned and operated online shopping site, and showcases our newest Inuvo app, BargainMatch. Through the BargainMatch API, website publishers receive a private-label shopping portal that combines product and coupon search while paying you and your users when they shop at the web's top merchants. Your visitors comparison shop and earn rewards back on any products they purchase, and you make money from each purchase made! You can customize the program to fit your needs---whether you want to build loyalty with rewards points, drive traffic by offering cash back, or support your cause with the not-for-profit approach.

DealEx– DealEx is a member of the Inuvo App family, allowing merchants, whether local or national, to create and distribute deals to tens of millions of consumers across our vast network of web properties and/or applications. Discounted deals have become popular with sites like Groupon and Living Social and we feel we have tweaked the traditional model to allow more merchants to access these types of deals to drive new customers to them again and again.

LocalXML- LocalXML, another Inuvo App, allows you to build directories around yellow page data, inclusive of both local and business related data. These data files are accessed through a XML feed, which provides efficient and cost-effective implementation of the business information. Included within the data feed are various local business reviews, along with a built-in review module that the publisher can integrate within their site to allow users to further review a business. See LocalXML in action at the Inuvo web property www.yellowise.com.

BabyToBee – BabytoBee is an Inuvo owned website inclusive of new content, resources and tools for women planning a pregnancy, expecting a baby, or who have recently delivered.  The recently revamped BabytoBee website also offers family-oriented interactive tools such as due date calculators, budget templates and pregnancy checklists.   Additional consumer-friendly features planned for the site are mommy blogs to offer mothers the chance to blog about their day to day experiences, along with a baby-product shopping portal!

Affiliate Marketing with the Inuvo Platform – Affiliate marketing allows advertisers and publishers to work together with a shared purpose of getting the advertiser more leads, sales, or clicks to their website.  The advertiser has the benefit of receiving quality visitors to their site, while the publisher benefits by earning commission on a performance basis for the customers they refer. Think of publishers as a virtual sales team for the advertiser that are only paid when they perform! It is a win-win for both sides. The backbone of the affiliate marketing channel, the Inuvo Platform has also become the central data hub for all of our product and service offerings.

Inuvo Search ­– Inuvo Search is an exclusive program allowing approved publishers operating shopping search engines, local search engines, niche directory sites and other search-related sites to have pay-per-click sponsored ads on their site. It's an effective monetization vehicle to get paid per click when visitors leave your site to shop around and it creates valuable content for your site users.

Inuvo Display - Consumers are out there--surfing, searching, entertaining and buying. Inuvo uses these data points to target and deliver the right message to the right consumer at just the right time--when they are interested in a specific brand, product or service. Reaching consumers at the right time enables Inuvo to generate higher click rates and more conversions for our clients.

Inuvo would like you to join us and end 2010 with a bang!  Any of our products provide publishers, advertisers and agencies a great opportunity to earn additional Holiday revenue. Should any of these products be of any interest to you, please contact sales [at] inuvo [dot] com. 

What do you think about our new product offering? What else can we be doing?

We are now just days away from the official start of the 2010 holiday shopping season with those two notorious leading economic indicators: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Are you ready to start your holiday shopping before you have even cleared the table of Thanksgiving dinner? Shoppers, you may want to wait until after the table is cleared.

When I started this blog, I had never heard of “Cyber Monday”.  Do you know what Cyber Monday is?  Let’s explore together.  Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately following Black Friday and is quickly becoming the biggest online shopping day of the year.  Cyber Monday is a term established by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. Shop.org did not, however, create the marvel of Cyber Monday; it merely gave a name to the shopping phenomenon that is twin to Black Friday.  Shop.org developed CyberMonday.com where, on Cyber Monday, online shoppers can access products of nearly 400 online retailers who are offering special promotions.  Several other retailers have followed tradition and now offer discounts and savings opportunities for online shoppers on Cyber Monday.

I found that most major online retailers (Walmart, Target, Amazon, Overstock) here in the US advertise and run the same special deals for Cyber Monday as they do on Black Friday.  For example, Target and Amazon advertise and offer the same deals on both days, as well as grouping them together in their holiday marketing campaigns.  Best Buy is advertising Cyber Monday online-only discounts and free shipping for two days, Sunday and Monday. 

Is this just another gimmick to get shoppers to spend more money?  Depends on how you look at it!  Retailers continue to do everything they can to entice consumers to purchase merchandise at the end of the year.  The holiday season is when most retailers go from "red" to "black" - meaning the money earned during this time is profit for the year.  On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, retailers typically roll out deep discounts throughout each day until the item sells out.   I don’t know about you, but I don’t buy anything unless it’s on sale or “deeply discounted”.  Essentially, it is a win-win situation. 

The state of our economy is still affecting spending but there is reason for optimism this holiday season.  Consumers are expected to compensate for the still somewhat struggling economy by shopping for sales more often, using coupons more frequently, and comparison shopping online.  Inuvo’s loyalty shopping portal BargainMatch.com encompasses all these functions in one interface.  BargainMatch is a private-label shopping portal that combines product and coupon search while paying shoppers when they shop on the site.  To start shopping and saving now, visit BargainMatch.com.

The Holiday Season is, as always, targeted for a number of high-tech gift requests.  It’s no big secret that anything with the Apple logo on it is always amongst the most desired. Parents, don’t be shocked to find an iPad, iPod Touch or the iPhone 4 at the top of your kid’s wish list this year. 

Don’t believe me? Keep reading!

•  39% of children want an Apple gadget for Christmas
•  17% of 5-8 year olds want Apple products
•  50% of 9-12 year olds most want an Apple iGadget
•  66% of 13-16 year olds have Apple products at the top of their list
  (0SX Daily, October 2010)

Projected Christmas 2010 Apple Gadget Sales (all ages):

• iPhone 4 – Apple released this fourth generation smartphone on June 24^th of this year.  The iPhone 4 is the successor to the iPhone 3GS and is marketed for video calling, media consumption such as books and periodicals, movies, music, and games, and for general web and e-mail access.  Apple reported sales of 14.1 million iPhone 4's in fiscal Q4, up 91% from 2009.

• iPad -  The iPad is a tablet computer that is marketed as a platform for audio and visual media such as books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content.  Apple describes the iPad as “The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video. Hands Down.”  There are about 200,000 applications available for the iPad.  Apps that have been previously downloaded to an iPhone or iPod Touch can be synced to the iPad from a Mac or PC.  Add up the 2,300 Wal-Mart stores,  221 Apple Stores, 1,093 Best Buy's and 1,743 Target stores retailing the device, Americans have more than 5,300 places to walk out of with the gift of an iPad for someone special this Holiday Season.

• iPod – The iPod has revolutionized the world of MP3 players.  The iPod makes the purchase of music very easy, but also provides the most intuitive user friendly MP3 player of them all.  In September, Apple introduced a complete iPod line redesign, going back to buttons on the iPod shuffle and making the iPod Touch even more like an iPhone.
  • Nano – The most radical redesign is the nearly square iPod Nano. The Nano touch screen itself is square with a built-in camera and FM radio.  The only buttons are sleep/wake and volume up/down. The iPod dock connector remains on the bottom, and for the first time ever there is a built-in clip on the back to attach to your pocket, belt, watch strap, etc.
  • Shuffle – Everything old is new again for the iPod shuffle. The Shuffle abandons the no-button design of the past two generations in favor of the traditional iPod control wheel.
  • Touch – The new iPod touch has the same G4 processor, the same Retina Display, and the same front-facing camera as an iPhone 4, but now has enough megapixels to capture HD video and low resolution photos.  With the new features and computing power, the 2010 iPod touch offers incredible value. For those of us who would love an iPhone 4 but are locked into a mobile contract, it's one way to have most of the iPhone 4 experience without a two-year service contract.

• MacBook Pro –  In April, Apple unveiled updates to its MacBook Pro line of computers introducing new features that will include faster processors, better graphics, and improved battery life.  The new 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro models are now carrying Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, which are up to 50% faster than the previous systems.

Many Apple products and their accessories can be purchased on our new loyalty shopping site, BargainMatch.com.   BargainMatch is a shopping portal that combines product and coupon search while paying cash back when purchases are made on the site from the web's top merchants.   

What is on your Christmas wish list this year?